Chapter 36

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

“ M organ,” Helena breathed, looking upon the sketches before her. “These are…these are magnificent.”

“You are magnificent,” he told her, standing by her side.

As promised, Morgan had explained everything. From the moment he began to have romantic feelings for her, right up until he left her home. When he was finished, he had pulled out the sketches — over a dozen — that he had done of her while she had been in Ashfield with Luke.

They had astonished her, the realness of his lines, the glow that he had captured. But, while the women in the drawings held some of her likeness, they were not her. They could not be. The woman he had drawn was so much more.

“These are not me,” Helena protested, tracing her finger along a curved line on one of the drawings, “I am… I am not this beautiful.”

“They are how I see you,” Morgan said softly, laying a hand on her shoulder.

Her cheeks flushed as she instinctively leaned into Morgan’s touch.

“You are Persephone, are you not?” he asked, his tone slightly teasing as his hand slipped to the back of her neck.

She let out a dry laugh and turned her gaze towards him.

“Only at the Devil’s Masquerade ,” she retorted.

“Mmm.” Morgan grunted, shaking his head slightly. “You see, I must disagree with you there. “When you are happy, Helena — genuinely happy — you glow. Your inner light blasts into the surrounding darkness and floods it with life. Just as Persephone’s did in the underworld.”

Helena felt a lump form in her throat as she listened to Morgan’s emphatic words. There was no flattery, no seduction. It was just raw truth.

“Only you have made me glow like this,” she rasped, turning away from the sketches.

“It was an honor,” Morgan replied, stroking the back of her neck.

Helena turned to him sharply, her emotional reverie brought up short by one particular word.

“ Was ?” she asked.

Morgan’s lips twitched as he let out a rueful laugh, his eyes filling with sadness.

“In light of every possible way that I failed you, I would assume so,” he replied, though there was a ring of hope in his voice.

“You failed at nothing,” she countered. “In fact your success in everything you have done has been phenomenal.”

Morgan gave her a puzzled look.

“How so?” he ventured slowly.

“Well, not only were you successful in completing my list of goals, saving my life, and getting my brother to give my freedom back to me, you have also succeeded in making me unbelievably angry.”

Morgan laughed, and she could not help but smile in return.

“The only thing you failed at was giving in to my request to take my maidenhood.” She continued. “Though I was — and still am — very disappointed by that, I am grateful.”

“You have no idea how hard that was,” Morgan replied, his smile fading. “I wanted you. God, I wanted you from the moment I saw you at the first masquerade, but Helena, things were becoming so twisted, and you were so…”

“I know,” she replied, not wanting to relive the moment all over again.

“You have spoken your truths. Now it is time for me to speak mine, so here they are. When I asked you to help me with my list, I thought that I would be able to have these experiences without the need for love and enjoy them. I had intended to keep them as precious memories of the time when I was bold enough to strike out and realize my desires.

What I have come to realize is that the reason I enjoyed all of these things with you was because you made me feel safe, and I now believe that such desires cannot be felt the way I felt them without that sense of safety. That safety did not come out of nowhere. It had always been there, ever since you came into our lives as a boisterous boy. I did not realize how heavily I leaned on it until you were no longer there.”

“My love for you has existed since I became a part of your family,” Morgan replied. “I just had no idea that it could ever become romantic until we struck our bargain.”

Helena nodded in acceptance.

“I feel that way, too,” she confessed.

“But Ambrose,” he countered. “How is he going to accept this? I know he said he is fine with it, but is he truly?”

“I believe Ambrose has… learned a lot from this particular experience,” Helena replied. “And as I told you before, he only wants his brother back.”

“And you?” Morgan asked quickly, slipping his hand away from her neck and taking a step back. “What do you want, Helena?”

Helena drew in a breath as she squared her shoulders and tilted her chin up to him.

“Firstly, I want to finish sitting for my portrait,” she began. “You achieved your end of our deal — hastily and rather poorly, but you did.”

She paused as Morgan let out a laugh.

“Now I want to reach the end of mine. Even if what you draw from memory is stunning.”

“You will have to sit nude again,” he reminded her, his brow quirking.

“I imagine so,” she replied with wit. “But I will not be called a shirker.

“Very well,” he agreed, his stature growing more relaxed. “What else?”

“Tell me how you feel about me.”

Morgan’s smile dropped a little, but not into a frown. His face held a look of deep reflection as his green eyes shone into her blue ones.

“I love you,” he stated simply.

Happiness poured through her, but Helena fought the emotional tears and pushed forward.

“And I love you. So, what shall we do about that?”

A look of yearning filled Morgan’s eyes as he swept his gaze down her body, and Helena felt her blood warm. When they met hers again, she felt her knees grow weak as she saw his pure desire for her blaze from his green depths. She remained still as he closed the space between them, but could not stop her body from trembling and shivering as his hand closed around her throat.

“Tell me what you want, Helena,” he commanded, his humor gone. “Tell me, and whatever it is, I shall give it to you.”

Helena felt her heart flutter in anticipation as she reached for his hand and squeezed his hold more tightly around her throat. She smiled seductively as her aching canal spasmed with need and caused a feral grunt to erupt from Morgan’s chest.

“I want this,” she rasped, stroking her fingers teasingly along his own, “I want this… exchange of power between us. Every night. As your wife.”

“Oh, thank God,” Morgan groaned, then pulled her in by the throat to kiss her.

Helena met his lips hungrily, happy that at long last they were together again. As their lips joined and devoured, Morgan’s other arm wrapped around her waist, pressing her fully into him. She reveled in the feeling of being so close, and she greedily wrapped her arms around his muscled torso in return.

“You will be my wife,” Morgan rasped between kisses.

His hands smoothly shifted their hold on her, going to her backside, and Helena gasped as she suddenly felt her body leave the floor as Morgan lifted her. She immediately shifted her own hold, wrapping her arms around his neck as her legs locked around his waist.

“Mine,” he whispered, carrying her to the couch, “All mine.”

Helena whimpered, her heart flooding with joy as arousal pulsated through the rest of her body. Yes, she would be his. And he would be hers.

“Morgan,” she whispered, their kiss breaking as he began to kiss down her neck.

“Yes, my little Persephone?” Morgan rasped, continuing his kisses as he worked at her buttons.

Helena gasped, then moaned as he freed her left nipple and licked it slowly before enveloping her breast with his mouth.

“Remember my request from our last night together?”

For a moment she felt Morgan tense, but before she could ask, his body relaxed into hers, and he worked to free her other nipple.

“You want to give me your maidenhood?” he asked, beginning his worship of her right breast.

“Helena’s cheeks stained red at his blunt question, but her body was experiencing too much pleasure from Morgan’s wandering mouth to care.

“Yes,” she breathed.

With a sudden harsh tug on her skirts that made her back arch and her breath shudder with excitement, Morgan let out a sound of agreement and buried his head between her legs.

“Very well, little one,” he murmured in a muffled voice.

Helena moaned and shuddered as his tongue licked slowly across her heated, moist petals. He chuckled darkly as his hands clasped tightly around her thighs, and just before he unleashed his pent-up need upon her, he added, “as you wish.”